|
|
It makes good sense to use clay for pots, vases, pitchers, and platters, but I like to have things both ways. I make things that could be functional, but I really want them to be considered works of art.
-Betty Woodman*
Betty Woodman (1930-2018) was internationally recognized as one of the most important ceramic artists. Through her inventive use of color and form and her expert blend of a wide range of influences, she created exuberant and captivating ceramic sculpture.
Employing many forms, from fragmented wall vases to bronze benches to pillow pitchers, she presented a delightful gathering of influences and traditions. Woodman traveled extensively, finding inspiration in cultures around the world. Artist and writer Jeff Perrone has described Woodman’s remarkable ability to draw on many sources:
As a body of work, her ‘style’ is an ever-changing constellation of ceramic styles…This ceramic eclecticism is an implicit critique of modernist “purity”, the leveling of variety and difference. But Woodman’s eclecticism, her pluralism is not a scrambling or confusion of systems. It is the selection of what is best from various styles; it requires more care, more orderliness to be an eclectic than to apply a single standard or adhere to a single model.
For Woodman, this eclectic gathering was an essential part of her process:
Things emerge in my studio from a seen image or experience that gets recalled in whatever work I am doing. The work becomes a conduit of the memory of a painting, a landscape, architecture, or some other visual stimulus. Once it starts to manifest itself in my art, the topic and subject then gets further researched in books, visits to museums, or by another trip.
Drawing no boundaries between traditions of fine art and craft, Woodman took elements from the rich heritage of each and made them her own. She used the motif of the vase and the vessel repeatedly, allowing it to enrich her exploration of formal and painterly traditions:
The centrality of the vase in my work is certainly a reference to a global perspective on art history and production.The container is a universal symbol- it holds and pours all fluids, stores foods, and contains everything from our final remains to flowers. The vase motif connects what I do to all aspects of art. I can mix the motifs of a classic Greek vase on one side of a triptych with the details of a Japanese print on the other all conveyed with a palette based on the hues of a recollected Hindu temple.
Professor of philosophy and writer Arthur Danto agrees about the solvency of the vase form in Woodman’s work:
Woodman’s vases project the use with which their meaning is connected, but at the same time declare their affinity with the Modernist art to which they owe their visual interest and originality. To live with one of Woodman’s pieces is to connect oneself with both sets of meanings- the eternal human meanings of the vase as subject, and the historical meanings of the vase as form.
Betty Woodman lived and worked in New York City and Antella, Italy. Her work has been shown around the world in exhibitions in France, Italy, Holland and Japan. The Metropolitan Museum, New York presented a retrospective of Woodman’s work in June 2006.
*All remarks by Betty Woodman are drawn from an interview with curator Patterson Sims, published by the Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, for the exhibition Two Bronze Benches and Four "Ceramic Pictures" of Korean Paintings (November 23, 2002 - April 13, 2003)
 |
Awards
2000 Honorary Fellow, National Council of Educators in Ceramic Arts
1998 The Visionary Award of the American Craft Museum, New York
1995 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, Bellagio Study Center, Italy
1993 Distinguished Research & Creative Lectureship, University of Colorado, Boulder
1987 Governor’s Award in the Arts, Colorado
1986 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1980 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
1966 Fulbright-Hays Scholarship to Florence, Italy
Education
Alfred University, School for the American Craftsman, Alfred, New York, 1948-50
Museum Collections
Alfred University, State University College of Ceramics, Alfred, New York
American Craft Museum, New York
American Ambassador’s Residence, Stockholm, Sweden
Archie Bray Foundation, Collection, Helena, Montana
The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Carnegie-Mellon Institute, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colorado
Contemporary Crafts Association, Portland, Oregon
Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York
Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri
Denver Airport, Denver, Colorado
Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
Detroit Art Institute, Detroit, Michigan
Het Kruithuis, s’Hertongenbosch, The Netherlands
International Ceramic Museum, Faenza, Italy
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mills College, Antonio Pireto Memorial Collection, Oakland, California
Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, North Carolina
Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France
Museum Het Princessehof, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
Museum of Decorative Arts of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Provincial Museum Voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium
Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum, Providence, Rhode Island
St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, Missouri
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
The Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, Florida
University of Arizona, Tempe, Arizona
University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
University of Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
World Ceramic Center, Ichon, Korea
Yale University Art Museum, New Haven, Connecticut
Selected Solo Exhibitions
* catalogue
+ traveling
2007 Memories, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
2006 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York*
2006 Betty Woodman: New Work, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
2005 Betty Woodman: Recent Ceramic Sculpture, Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica,
California
2005 Betty Woodman, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
2003 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California
2003 Souvenirs, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
2002 Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, Sedalia, Missouri*
Two Bronze Benches and Four Ceramic Pictures of Korean Paintings,
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey
2001 Betty Woodman, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
2000 Betty Woodman & Robert Barni: due e vasi, Centro D’Arte La Loggia,
Montefiridolfi, Italy
Pots, Paper, Prints, Mizel Arts Center at the JCC, Denver
Clay, Bronze, Paper, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Works from the 1980’s, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
1999 Blanden Memorial Art Museum, Fort Dodge, Iowa*
Recent Work of Prints and Vases, Bethel College, St. Paul, Minnesota
Betty Woodman: Glass, Cirva, Marsielle, France*
1998 Provincial Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, Belgium*+ (originated at
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1996)
Max Protetch Gallery, New York
New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, New Jersey*
1997 Fundaçào Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Portugal*+ (originated at Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam, 1996)
Museé d’Art Contemporain, Dunkerque, France*+ (originated at Stedelijk
Museum, Amsterdam, 1996)
Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1996 Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam*+
1995 Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
International Museum of Ceramics, Faenza, Italy
1994 Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Carin Delcourt van Krimpen Gallery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Museé des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France+ (originated at Het Kruithuis Den
Bosch)
Gallery Camino Real, Boca Raton, Florida
1993 Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Il Giardino Dipinto, Het Kruithuis Den Bosch, The Netherlands,+ (installation,
originated at Het Kruithuis Den Bosch, Holland)
Barney Wycoff Gallery, Aspen, Colorado
1992 Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Somewhere between Naples and Denver, (originally installed at Denver Art Museum,
1988), Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1991 Betty Woodman: Works in Clay, Johnson County Community College,
Gallery of Art, Overland Park, Kansas
Opera Selecta: The Work of Betty Woodman (1975-1990) Museé des Arts
Modernes, Aix-le-Bain, France
1990 Francesca Pia Gallery, Berne, Switzerland
Recent Work, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Opera Selecta: The Work of Betty Woodman (1975-1990) Het Kruithuis Den
Bosch, The Netherlands*+
1989 Lobby Project: Betty Woodman, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California
Unique Porcelains, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1988 Somewhere Between Naples and Denver, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
(installation)*
Recent Work, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
Lobby Project: Betty Woodman/Three Palace Matrons, Museum of Modern
Art, New York
1987 Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, Boulder, Colorado
Carlton College, Northfield, Minnesota
Greenberg Gallery, St Louis, Missouri*
1986 Max Protetch Gallery, New York
Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California
Susan Hilberry Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
1985 The Ceramics of Betty Woodman, Freedman Gallery at Albright College,
Reading, Pennsylvania*
Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Islands, Florida
Presenting Food, FabricWorkshop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Collaboration with
Daniel Mattrocce)
Italian Vases, Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1983 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California
The Houston Room, Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York
Max Protetch Gallery, New York
1982 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, California
An Interior Exchange, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
(Collaboration with Cynthia Carlson)
1981 A Cloistered Arbor Room, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York (Collaboration with Joyce Kozloff)
Okun-Thomas Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1980 Amalgam Art Limited, London, England
Galleria Pirra, Torino, Italy*
Canvas Constructions and Painted Pots, Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York
Mostly Italian Pots, Hadler/Rodriguez Gallery, New York
Rochester Art Center, Minnesota*
1979 Art Latitude, New York
Hills Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1978 Casper College, Casper, Wyoming
Greenwich House Pottery, New York
Lyda Levi Gallery, Milano, Italy
1977 Honor Exhibit, Colorado Women’s College, Denver
Kansas State College, Emporia
United States Information Service Gallery, Milano, Italy
1976 Clay and Fiber Gallery, Taos, New Mexico
1975 Nelson-Fosdick Gallery, Alfred University, Alfred, New York
Contemporary Crafts Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1974 One Hundred Italian Pots, Boulder, Colorado
1972 Raku, Kusthankel Ina Broerse, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (collaboration
with George Woodman)
1970 Salt Glaze, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
1969 Salt Glaze, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana
|
|
|
